Sales and trading interview questions
Everything you need to know about sales and trading input together for the first time. When I interviewed for sales and trading summer analyst positions in — at J. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, respectively — I sales and trading interview questions had no idea what I was doing.
If you are interviewing for sales, you need to know the same info that a person interviewing for trading does. Sales gets a bad rap on this site, but I have met a lot of sales guys. A lot of the sales guys I know are ex-traders who for one reason or another quit trading to go into sales - and they love it less stress , they know all about the product, and they do just as well as when they were trading. The difference between these interviews is that they will focus on one area more than the other, but that does not mean you should not have a stock pick ready when going into a fixed income interview. Warning: This guide is not meant to be a cram sheet. This guide is meant to be completed over time and to prepare you for the marathon that is the interviewing process.
Sales and trading interview questions
Sales and trading interview questions can be some of the toughest in all of finance. The reason being is that there is no division within major investment banks that is more diverse in what they do than in sales and trading. Within any given sales and trading division you'll have folks who focus on equity derivatives, mortgage backed securities, interest rate swaps, distressed debt, among dozens of other products. Note: Each "product" or asset class will normally have a dedicated desk that will contain sales people, traders, and potentially others including sales traders , quants, and structurers. The issue with sales and trading is that in a superday for a summer analyst or full-time role, you'll be interviewing with at least three members of the sales and trading division who could come from any desk and obviously they can't help but judge you based on whether you'd be a good fit for their desk. What this means practically is that interviewees need to have a broad understanding of what occurs on a trading floor in order to be successful in an interview. In other words, you need contextual understanding. No one expects you in an interview to understand how exactly to think about gamma in the context of a complex equity derivatives trade or how to think about how an out-of-court restructuring impacting distressed bonds. However, having contextual understanding of where those things fit into the broader sales and trading division and what the basics of the major desks are is critically important. Because of just how little information is out there on sales and trading interviews, I created Sales and Trading Interviews , which contains over sales and trading interview questions and guides including breakdowns of all the major desks. If you are at all interested in breaking into sales and trading, this is the definitive guide I wish I had when I first interviewed and started as a summer analyst at Goldman Sachs. Now let's review some questions. Also note that at the end of this page I go over some common types of sales and trading interview question along with some general prep advice for your interviews. Below are some links to help you navigate to each of the questions and answers on this page easily. I've tried to pick a diverse selection here to give you an idea of what kinds of questions to expect and prepare for along with some, like question two and three, that will almost certainly appear in an interview.
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The key to acing an interview is preparation—and beginning your preparation as soon as possible. Sales and trading interviewers, while not overly technical, tend to want to talk about the stock market. Fit questions are normally the first screen to moving on to the next round of interviews. These questions are pretty typical investment banking fare, but you should be prepared to talk about why you want to trade or sell. Make your answer as concrete as possible by offering examples in your past that support your belief that you will make a great trader or salesperson. This question is not so relevant for someone with industry experience, but especially important for career switchers. Consultants who go back to school to get an MBA or a degree in quantitative mathematics to become traders need to have a reason for the career switch.
If you're new here, please click here to get my FREE page investment banking recruiting guide - plus, get weekly updates so that you can break into investment banking. Thanks for visiting! Being an athlete helps a lot because it demonstrates your drive and risk-taking ability. There are also a few transfers from the middle office and other teams at the bank. There are 1. For sales , you can take a similar approach, but you should focus on developing client relationships rather than learning all the technical details of a product. The main difference is that you need to pick stories that demonstrate the traits that salespeople and traders want to see. For example:. The themes are thinking quickly , mitigating risk , performing well under pressure , and generating profits.
Sales and trading interview questions
Sales and trading summer analyst internships are among the best to have during your undergraduate career. Not only will they open up the world of sales and trading to you - showing you how a trading floor really operates - they will also carry enough "prestige" to help you pivot to other roles should you want to try something new like investment banking or equity research. Part of the reason why this site was created is that much of the information out there on sales and trading is terribly outdated or non-existent. Some seem to think that you can walk into an interview - not knowing what something like rates trading refers to - and walk out with an offer. In reality, the way that sales and trading has evolved over the past five years is that almost everyone who starts full-time will come through the sales and trading summer analyst program of the bank. Further, unlike in investment banking where everyone is a bit of a cog in the pitch book machine, in sales and trading individual talent, personality traits, and preferences plays a large role in success and failure. This is part of the reason why this site has harped so much on making sure you understand what the major desks within a bank are and decide early on which ones most interest you. Because the reality is some will excel in rates trading while failing in FX sales, for example. You need to be self-reliant and figure out the best place on the trading floor to land.
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You need to think carefully about what in your personality and past work experience makes you more suited to sales and trading versus investment banking. Obviously if you're ITM or OTM has a large baring on your option value given the binary nature of the outcome either losing your option premium, if you're long for example, or making it back plus more. Everything you need to know about sales and trading in , put together for the first time. I'm from a non-target in Canada with a mediocre GPA. Morgan - to buy more treasuries than they would otherwise do. To be blunt: this is everything I wish I had known when I began. The reason why someone may want to do a repo is because they have lots of assets, but perhaps don't have enough cash at the moment. The reason for the course being so large is that I believed a truly comprehensive course needed to cover not only the interview questions you need to prepare for in a sales and trading interview and there are a lot of them! And thank you very much for the guide. There's no need to go as in-depth, but what I'm trying to illustrate in this interview answer is that you don't need to have a defined view. Why someone would want to invest - diversify portfolio, higher yields. If you are confused about a question, wait for the interviewer to finish before asking them to clarify. Furthermore, knowing more technical concepts like the Volcker Rule would make you stand out from other applicants. There are 1. If you would like to learn more general info about a topic, use Google and Investopedia or Wikipedia.
Sales and trading interview questions can be some of the toughest in all of finance.
It's generally a good idea to know if the yield curve has been steepening or flattening over the past few months prior to your interview. Asking thoughtful, nuanced ones - of which I give examples that are applicable to any interviewer in the sales and trading guides - is the single best way to stand out and leave a favorable final impression. Sales and trading is a job unlike any other and thoroughly worth it for the right people. This means in event of bankruptcy, before stockholders can claim company assets, bondholders will be paid out first. What kind of a bond issue is this? Not only that, but the actual work itself is interesting! Below is a list of more technical books that provide a deeper understanding of a particular product. The duration of a year conventional bond is substantially less than 30 years. Author: David Bickerton. What this means is that in theory, if none of the loans default, then equity should get much more than what they put in!
It is possible to tell, this :) exception to the rules